Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/51

 io* s. m. JA>-. n, loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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speare's "I'll be a park, and thou shalt be my deer." The origin of parkin, a Yorkshire luxury, is unknown. It is probably, as is conjectured, from the name Perkin, with er sounded as ar, as is con- stantly the case. Under park, parley, and other words of cognate derivation is much of interest. These lead naturally to parliament, the discussion of which supplies one of the most interesting essays in the work. The amount of historical information fur- nished under this head is not easily indicated. It is satisfactory to find an account of the French parle- ment, often misused by English writers. Parlia- mentarian is used so early as 1613. Parlour has also an interesting history. Parlous is, of course, a syncopated form of perilous. Under Parnassian Mr. Gosse is given as authority for the use of a term applied to poets of the nineteenth century belonging to the Parnasse Moderne. That name, it might be indicated, is taken from the ' Parnasse iSatyrique' of the seventeenth century. Parole has more significations than are generally known. Paroxysm, in the form paroxixmos, is encountered so early as 1577. No very definite origin is found for parrot, which is first encountered in 1525. Some space is devoted to parsley, petersilie, petrosilye, &c. ; and much that is interesting and instructive is furnished concerning parson Many of the com- binations of part, such as part-song, are of extreme interest. Part as a verb, " Come let us kiss and part,'' is not less worthy of study. Carew and Cowley both use parterre. Walpolehas, "I am not parti"! to the family." Under particle we should like Byron's "The mind, that very fiery particle." Partlet, the name of a hen, is no older than Chaucer, and parturition is no earlier than the middle of the seventeenth century ; parturient is half a century older. Party has, of course, many signi- fications. Parly, in " the spirit of party," first appears in 1729. De Quincey claims to have coined parvani/nity in 1830, as an antithesis to magnanimity. Boyle used it, however, a century and a half earlier. Wotton first uses Pasquinade in 1592. Of Pasquin, the coadjutor of Marfprius, an excellent account is given. We would fain draw attention to patten, patter, and a hundred more words, and have not, indeed, gone through more than a section of the number. As is obvious, however, the space we have to devote to notices of books is very small, and the calls upon it are numerous and urgent. We quit this instalment the more readily since we know that it is already being studied by some of our readers. No part of this monumental work has involved more labour than the present, and its appearance exactly up to date is matter for con- gratulation. At p. 567 the first cross-heading is not quite accurate.

Diary and Letters of Madame cCArblay, 1778-1840.

With Preface and Notes by Austin Dobson.

Vols. I. and II. (Macmillan & Co.) A NEW, handsome, well - illustrated, and, in a sense, definitive edition of Fanny Burney's ' Diary and Letters' is one of the greatest boons that can be given to the lover of eighteenth-century litera- ture and art. Apart from the interest felt in Fanny herself who, at the outset at least, before she is rather spoilt by homage, is a bewitching creature her revelations cast a light upon England in the days of Johnson not elsewhere to be obtained. As regards Johnson himself, who at the time the diary begins was close on seventy years of age, nowhere except in the immortal pages of Boswell can we find

him depicted more exactly to the life. Our author is, indeed, herself a Boswell, whose attention to her subject is continually distracted to herself, of which she had an overweening, if easily explicable^, estimate. Charming as she is, we are at times a little impatient of her egotism and her affectation, and, in spite of Macaulay's defence of her from the- gross and ill-natured attack of Croker, we think her vainglory is but ill concealed. If ever there was homage by which the head of a girl might well, be turned it was hers. Dr. Johnson seems to have been really in love with her during her residence at the Thrales', and though he was then an old man r she seems almost capable of reciprocating his adora- tion. Reynolds was enthusiastic in her praise, and Burke was sincere and outspoken in homage. Similar tributes were paid in later days to a namesake, Fanny Kemble, Mrs. Butler ; but the worshippers in this case, though they included Mac- aulay, Rogers, and Longfellow, were less august.

The present edition of the diary and letters is= based upon the first edition, published in two- separate instalments by Colburn in 1842 and 1846, as- edited by her niece Charlotte Barrett. It has beeni carefully and sympathetically edited by Mr. Austin, Dobson, whose whole life might well have been a preparation for the task, and whose notes are admirably helpful and serviceable. The notes to the original edition were, it was felt, inadequate to modern requirements, and those now supplied were written expressly for this issue. Conciseness has been a chief aim of Mr. Dobson. The information presented is, however, in every case adequate, and the whole constitutes an admirably conscientious and thorough piece of work. Appendices to the volumes are new, and include unpublished letters and extracts from various sources which were too long to be incorporated in the notes. The illustra- tions, consisting of portraits, views, autographs, and plans, have a charm of their own, and con- stitute an attractive feature in the work. In the volumes already issued we have as frontispiece to the first volume a portrait of Frances Burney, taken in 1782 by Edward Francis Burney, and to the second one of Hester Piozzi (Mrs. Thrale), by George Dance, R.A., from the National Portrait Gallery. Other portraits are of Dr. Johnson, by Sir Joshua Reynolds ; of Dr. Burney, by the same ; of Burke, by Romney ; and of Samuel Crisp, the heroine's " Dear Daddy." There are in the first volume three autographs of Fanny Burney. The views, meanwhile, are numerous and well selected.

At this period of her life when she was young and overflowing with animal spirits, Fanny Burney was simply delicious. Her style had not yet been spoilt by her imitation of Johnson, and her shrewd obser- vations are admirably expressed. Her delight in the homage she received is touching, and her enjoyment carries one away. In the range of lite- rature we scarcely know a passage more en- chanting than the following which, familiar as it is, we must quote upon hearing of Dr. John- son's admiration for her 'Evelina': "But Dr. Johnson's approbation ! it almost crazed me with agreeable surprise it gave me such a flight of spirits, that I danced a jig to Mr. Crisp without any preparation, music, or explanation to his no small amazement and diversion. I left him, how- ever, to make his own comments upon my friskiness, without affording him the smallest assistance." A more delectable possession than this is not easily to be hoped. The only thing that could add to its